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Monday, September 10, 2012

A dozen pilots came out to Kahana today, and ten flew. That's a lot for a Monday! The sweetest part of the day was the morning session, and it got progressively stronger throughout the day. Conditions were quite strong at times on launch and also while we were airborne.

Roland and visitor Jay Z from Portland started things out with a nice early flight together. Later, Scot launched an experimental ultralight that turned out to be a bit sketchy in the increasing wind (his ancient Mac Para Intox), so he landed and hiked back up with his mini wing. Woody and JJ from Maui launched next, followed by me and Scot.

By the time I launched, the sensor was clocking an average windspeed of 15 mph at 58 degrees. Yikes. I was truly parked at trim speed at my highest point over the rhino horn, at close to two grand. But with my warp drive I was able to slowly crawl my way across the bay and around into the lift above Kaaawa.

I flew to Kualoa in that strong stuff, then veered wide offshore, and after a bit more than an hour in the air, I landed at Swanzys. It seemed to have backed off a bit from earlier but it was still quite strong. Ike was up at Kahana when I landed. Thanks to Scot for picking me up! Lake was last off, and from the beach we all watched him buzzing his mini wing around upper east launch, top landing a hundred times from every conceivable angle. Allegra was kiting on the LZ. Harvey was out there with us at the end, but he opted to fly the cooler. Later on Bonnie and Maui Doug came out - he flew his middle sized wing and she flew Woody's 16m Bullet.

My track is here, and also embedded below. I shot video of my flight, and if it looks okay I'll put something together and post it here.